Mike Oldfield
Amarok

Here it is, my first review. What better way to start than with my favorite album since childhood: "Amarok"?

This work is total. 
The review could end here as far as I'm concerned, but you're craving a more in-depth analysis, am I right?
Then you shall have it.

"Sondela uSomandla sukuma wena obengezela"
(Come closer, Almighty, stand up, you who glitters)

The historical context in which this work is set is that of 1990, a rather dark period for our Mike who, breaking with the major Virgin Records, released two rather disappointing albums: "Earth Moving" and "Heaven's Open". However, unlike the previous ones, with "Amarok" he abandons the direct provocation towards the label (achieved mainly through the lyrics, which is already peculiar for an artist like Oldfield who has always been somewhat indifferent to lyrics) and instead aims to subvert the record market with an LP-Suite from which no single can be derived.
With the contract about to expire and thus the possibility of a grand exit, Mike decides to compose what is initially the ideal sequel to "Ommadawn", from which it not only recalls the cover but also the foreign title (intended as derived from non-Anglo-Saxon languages). The etymology of the word "Amarok" is "Wolf" in Inuit language. 
And like a wolf, this album begins, among distorted voices and a guitar that imparts a metallic sound (perhaps a Dobro?) with Fast Riff Intro opening that theme that, while changing, will accompany us throughout the concept.
Even before the listener can get accustomed, the music is repeatedly interrupted, violated through some worthy adjustments and sound effects such as breaking glasses and toothbrushes loudly operating on teeth.
A blatant example is the electric guitar that suddenly explodes in the ears just 20 seconds in and will return later in the Intro to interrupt the inner dialogue of the protagonist (who is none other than Mike himself) who obsessively repeats <cite>happy</cite> almost as if trying to convince himself.
Happiness is brought back with Climax I - 12 Strings of only 33 seconds and then re-establishes itself until the first Reprise among sounds that recall the early suites of the multi-instrumentalist. 
Scot is one of the most dreamlike, serene yet at the same time majestic fragments ever heard (at least by myself), followed by an escalation of atmospheres that already begin to transport us into the multicultural dimension of the album, where, from this point on, the English countryside, Indian sitars, and African rhythms coexist peacefully. 
What up to this moment could have been perceived as a confused intertwining of melodies and thoughts becomes, if you will, even more confusing, with instruments entering for just a bar or two, swept away by some noise or suspended phrases like <cite>WATER !</cite> or <cite>busy</cite>.
At this point, the image forming in our minds is that of a man condemned to a monotonous and repetitive office life with ringing phones and boredom (in Lion Reprise you even hear sighs and lazily scratched beards) trying to escape but becoming more trapped. And the album continues more or less in the same way, in a triumph of riffs repeated and then destroyed an instant later, a madness that grips the mind and imprisons it in a completely abstract dimension.

Amidst one overdub and another, we arrive almost astounded at the "African part," which significantly diverges from Oldfield's influences up to that point.
This lengthy section occupying almost the entire second half of the album is decidedly more uniform than what preceded it, in fact, voices dominate and lull it to the end.
The escape to a free place, as well as Mike's long-cherished compositional freedom, is savored in every note of this journey, yet it winks at those who deem it a bit pretentious while maintaining an irrational baseline linearity. It is so chaotic and fragmented that it becomes compact, in a sense.
The initial mood is restored by Intro Waltz and Green Reprise that hark back to the first moments of listening.
Africa II Boat 2 and the subsequent Africa II - Bridge are perhaps the catchiest part of the entire work, incorporating a nice funky groove into the already known melody of Boat
Defying every common assumption about Oldfield, we find ourselves towards the end, completely lost and dazed, a dialogue of Janet Brown, portraying Margaret Thatcher, proclaims in a regal manner how endings are not actually such, as the world always needs new and fresh beginnings.
Finally, an Irish flute gently escorts us to the final summary of all the album’s melodies in Africa III-Happy, almost evaporating into silence, then in Africa III-Finale, whose title also references Tubular Bells, the maestro’s most famous work, which had the same summarizing purpose in its conclusion.

In summary:
An incredible tornado of notes that seem almost impossible to imprint in the mind as they appear and disappear so quickly allowing them to be forgotten after just a few moments, almost demonstrating that what matters is not the journey's path (in this case sonic) but the destination. In this perspective, one could say that this work by Mike Oldfield is perfect, seen as a whole it achieves the intent of transporting the listener to a dimension of awareness and grandeur.

This album is sound surrealism, it’s as if someone put a guitar in the hands of Miró rather than Oldfield.